Pieces of Eight

Chapter 5

Arriving back at Asfic Higj was a shock to both Cora and Themba. Neither of them had expected Tehraiza to portal them across such a long distance from one magically-restricted area to another so quickly, and so it was all they could do to keep their wits about them as they quite literally fell into the temple. Tehraiza had dropped them only a few feet above the star in the center of the floor in the main foyer, and given the extraordinary feat that moving them had been, they could forgive her a mere few feet in error. Cora stumbled slightly, but kept her feet; Themba, meanwhile, without his arms for balance, ending up falling awkwardly to one knee while he clutched Areli to his chest. Cora lurched for him, realized she was too far away and too late, and flinched back in sympathy as he landed. Wincing sharply as pain burst through his knee from the impact, Themba breathed deeply once, twice, thrice, and then opened his eyes to Cora. She had regained her bearings and turned to him, looking a bit pale and slightly panicked but otherwise okay.

"Healers," Themba stated simply, gingerly rising again as his knee shrieked in protest. Ignoring it, he stood square and held Areli securely. The joint held weight reliably, even if it wasn't happy about it. "Find whoever is awake and have them meet me down below, in the hospital. The more, the better."

Cora nodded once and rushed off, apparently glad to have something to do. Themba could relate and sympathize: the hardest thing to do was nothing. Breathing in and out again, he took a few slow, cautious steps before confirming that he could trust his knee and moving off at a trot. The door to his right and slightly behind him opened at a push, admitting him to a much-more-hospitable stairwell that took him down to the same sort of stone underground floor that they'd just pulled Areli from. This one, though, smelled of herbs and spices, and was well-lit with many open doors. Themba picked one at random, ducked in, and set Areli down on the raised bed covered by a straw mattress.

No sooner had he removed his own cloak and thrown it over Areli in addition to Tehraiza's did someone come pelting around the corner, out of breath and wild-eyed. It was Joanna, a petite woman with warm caramel colored skin and kind features that were now distorted slightly in her panic. Cora must have mentioned the nature of their emergency. Themba was quite relieved to see her, though: he knew Joanna as a kind-hearted woman who was a capable healer. He would trust her to see to his own wounds any day.

"Thank you for coming," he greeted, not taking it personally when she rushed past him in favor of peeling back the hasty coverings they'd given Areli. She audibly hissed when the first slivers of skin became visible, giving her the first hint of just how bad the damage was. "We only pulled him...ten minutes ago?" Themba attempted, figuring he could give her all the information he had. It couldn't hurt, and it might help. "We estimate he was held for eight days, captured from the battlefield. That's about all the information we have at this point."

Joanna grunted once in acknowledgment, and then again, longer and more poignant, when she revealed the twisted mess of Areli's rib cage. "'Tortured' is an understatement," she moaned, setting her hands to the deformed bones and beginning to, through the glow of magic, rework them to their normal shape. "Who is he?"

"One of Fulten's generals," Themba quietly revealed. Joanna sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth, but said nothing, only doubled down on the broken bones.

Another woman joined them moments later, looking quite similar to Joanna. She was her sister, Andrea, and she spoke with Joanna briefly for a moment before beginning to assist her with reconstructing Areli's desecrated ribs. Themba stood back and watched them work; there was little else he could do.

A third woman entered the room, tall and with a commanding aura, followed by a blonde man; the man went straight to work alongside Joanna and Andrea, taking instructions from them before beginning. The woman came to Themba and introduced herself as Emaylia before launching into a string of questions that Themba was unfortunately unable to answer.